Welcome friend.

Quote from Mauro Fiorentini on Apr 6^th, 2012, 7:13am:

 
More than you know.  I've been following your posts, and I'm also interested in experimental archaeology.  I work in a paleoanthropology lab studying primitive projectile weapons through the use of experimentation and comparative analysis with both archaeological finds and morphological data from skeletal remains.  I'm going to be doing archaeological field school this summer, and hopefully I'll be heading off to graduate school in about a year or so to start tackling this stuff on the way to a PhD.

My name is Alina.  The lab where I do my research is at Duke University.
 
Hopefully my dig site is going to be a battlefield of the Pequot War in northern Rhode Island.  It's a 17th century site, which is definitely much later than the paleolithic, but it is of interest to me as it is part of the trend of change in Native American weapons technology from the pre-columbian type weapons to those picked up from the colonists.  As more and more of the archaeological information comes out, it will be easier to chart the change in the weapons kit of native american tribes.

Quote from Mauro Fiorentini on Apr 6^th, 2012, 5:40pm:

 
I'm not an expert in Native American archaeology.  However, I think the book on slingstones in the Americas and Oceania probably covers that (though I haven't snagged my copy yet).  Of course, the Lovelock cave sling is a very early example.  The work I'm going to be doing is going to center on the Eastern Woodlands though, and living in that sort of environment, I can tell you it is not ideal for slinging at all.  I think a more Mediterranean type climate is better for slinging (like what I used to have when I lived in California).  Here in North Carolina, the forests are so dense that they make it difficult to use a sling, and the chance of a deflection is extremely high.  There just isn't a lot of room to use the range and power of a sling to its full advantage.  I think that's why in this region bows and arrows predominated, at least in the post-Archaic period.  Now, if you were to go out to the American west, that would be a whole different story.  At some point, I'm going to head up to Washington DC to the national museum of the American Indian.  They have some great artifacts there, and they may be able to give more answers as to the use of the sling amongst pre-columbian Native American tribes.

Hate to jump in on the 'dialog' here, but welcome.  
 
I am a bowyer as well. I mainly work on replicating Eastern Woodland style bows (mostly pre contact) but I do pretty much anything depending on the stave. You can learn a lot about what the various tribes use for the bow, purpose, what tools they had, how tall the indian was and what the envirement was like, and a whole bunch of other stuff when you make one. Right now I am working on a Potawan replica. North Carolina is a big Cherokee area I think so finding stuff on Indian culture there is cake compared to most places. I went there with my family last year to the ronoak/chimney rock area, beautiful area. Never really worked with atlatls much, just more of a bow and sling guy I guess.  
 
I have a pretty good feeling slings were used more often than given credit in the U.S. Espicialy when you have flocks of passenger pigions that an block out the sun and flocks of turkey in the hundreds; a sling would be a pretty formidable hunting weapon. And some tribes like the Hopewell tribe in Ohio used atlatls all the way until contact so I would think there were some tribes that used the sling as well.
 
You seem pretty knowledgeable on these things so I am looking forward to hearing more!

Slingign in forrested areas is pretty tough. You might want to take a day and learn how to throw Fig 8 throw. I used to reallly not like it but, truth be told, it's the best style for slinging in the woods.

Try watching this if you haven't already: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PyN2MnBOzI
It may help!
Greetings,
Mauro.